StarBlessed Page
by Lady Sabaoth
Summary: My first fic, please r&r, I need criticism. Summary: Elspeth of Tameran, the fourth female page of Tortall, is blessed by a priestess of Ailatairu, the Goddess of Light in the Darkness. She must use this light to stop the dark magic that is threatening
1. Chapter 1: Elspeth of Tameran

This is my first fanfic, so please r&r and tell me what you liked and didn't like so I can write a little better next time. It's set five years after Kel is knighted; it may be somewhat unrealistic and probably inaccurate, as I have not yet read Trickster's Queen and may be missing out on events in that time period. Also, I have taken a bit of liberty with some things, particularly with creating a Yamani goddess. If you hate it, tell me wholeheartedly.

Disclaimer: The setting and culture of Tortall, as well as anything else from the books in this fic belong wholly to the wonderful author Tamora Pierce. Elspeth and co. are property of me and my somewhat whimsical imagination, as well as the Goddess Ailatairu, Lathin Blood-Eyes, Andam Seirdash and whatever other strange people I come up with.

That applies to the entire fic because I'm not going to repeat the disclaimer every chapter.

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Elspeth of Tameran sat on her bed, frowning over her mathematics homework. It was somewhat late, and she was more than somewhat tired, feeling the new bruises and scrapes that she had picked up in the training yard. Her first year the bruises had felt like daily agony, but now, in her third year, she ignored them. The weights were killing her, though. Elspeth did not have particularly excellent stamina and hanging a few discs of metal off her shoulders had tired her remarkably. Three years of page's training had given her a layer of muscle over her slim frame that did not entirely suit her; the better things it had given her was a skill with the sword that even Edrin of Irenroha, the top fencer of the fourth-year pages, couldn't best, and two very good friends: Amai of Silvertower and Faren of Coa's Wood.

Amai of Silvertower had been the third girl of Tortall to become a page; she had worked hard to become one of the top pages, strong and quick in combat, especially unarmed. The year after Amai became a page Elspeth had arrived at the palace, a slender, wide-eyed ten-year-old who had a knack with a bow and blade and determination enough to stick to her dreams, however unrealistic and hard to achieve they turned out to be. Luckily, Amai had taken Elspeth's interruption of her regime well and had immediately become friends with her. She had also made Faren of Coa's wood, Amai's former sponsor and current friend, sponsor Elspeth. The three were nearly inseparable, and the friendship had lasted through Elspeth's second year and into her third.

Now it was winter, and the pages were training hard as ever. Elspeth sighed, rubbing a particularly painful, deep bruise on her shoulder. She walked over to the mirror and pulled her tunic aside to peer at it; it appeared to be healing, if slowly. Elspeth looked up at her reflection. A tall, slender girl looked back at her, grey-green eyes tired, silky black curls brushing her shoulders. She was losing her summer tan again and looked pale in the dimness of the room. Elspeth saw that she was beginning to get dark circles under her eyes; perhaps she should go to bed instead of finishing the mathematics, but she did have only the second question to answer… She sighed and picked up the parchment, numbers scribbled in the margins, and sat back down on the bed.

It was a fine way, she thought sourly, to spend her birthday, finishing her maths homework late in the evening after a hard day of combat; nearly the entire day had been taken up with free-form fighting with all the different weapons, which took a good deal more energy and resulted in a good deal more bruises than drills. She was thirteen, now, anyway, and was becoming, unfortunately, from her point of view, a young lady. She was beginning to get a figure, although not much of a bust. That was probably a blessing. She was also beginning to have a crush on Tommas of Disart; she wasn't entirely sure she liked the feeling.

She could barely see the parchment anymore, her page's room was so dark. Sighing, Elspeth pointed at the candle beside her bed; white fire lined with gold streaked out to light the candle's wick. Elspeth's Gift, like that of her older brother Sir Prosper of Tameran, controlled light; Elspeth had a gift with fire as well.

There was a knock on the door. "Come in," Elspeth said, putting down the maths problems. The door opened and Amai of Silvertower walked in. She was a slightly short girl, stocky and muscular, her brown hair pulled back in a short braid beginning to go soft with curls. Her brown eyes were pretty in her quiet, olive-tan face, a quiet Elspeth knew concealed determination and a bit of a temper.

"Maths, still?" Amai said. "I know the answer for the second question, but for the first your guess is probably better than mine. Here." Amai scribbled the answer to the second problem. Elspeth studied the paper, then looked up at her friend. "That's all very nice, but what did you come in to tell me about?" Elspeth asked mildly, folding up the completed homework and automatically sorting her academic books for the next day.

Amai sighed. "More of the usual, I'm afraid," she said. "Renol picking fights, Ketan going all hot-tempered and fighting with him, Duke haMinch assigning riding practice in the snow. Oh, and did I mention that Merkith has a bet on to kiss you?"

Elspeth groaned. "Gods, I don't deserve this. Why can't they make those idiotic bets involving you?" she asked Amai.

Amai grinned. "It's because they know I would beat them into a pulp if they did. You're far too forgiving, Elspeth."

"This time I am going to punch him," she muttered. "Very hard."

Amai laughed. "Just wanted to warn you. Good night."

"Goodnight," Elspeth said as Amai left. She dressed in her nightgown and went to bed. In the morning, she woke with the bell and dressed, putting on the leather harness with a sigh. She hurried down to the mess hall and found a seat between Amai and Faren. Ketan, a third-year page with dark blond hair and an apparently permanent worried look on his face, hurried in last to the mess hall, sporting a bruise on his cheek, a limp, and a split lip. He sat down at the place next to Amai, who said unsympathetically, "Renol again?" Ketan muttered something and applied himself to breakfast, as the other pages were doing.

"Good morning," Faren said. Elspeth turned to him. Her other closest friend, and a fourth-year page like Amai, Faren of Coa's Wood was a fair-haired, tan youth with dark hazel eyes and a quiet, thoughtful look on his face. Although not quite handsome, he spent a good deal of time in the practice yards and it showed in a very pleasing way. He was also one of the best people Elspeth had ever met, being a good leader and fighter and an excellent friend.

"Good morning," Elspeth said warmly, helping herself to her breakfast. She was hungry, probably due to the previous day's free-form combat.

"Did you know that Merkith's—"

"Got a bet on to kiss me, yes, I know, I know. Godess, I wish he'd stop. Or bug Amai and get his nose well and truly broken."

Faren smiled. Behind them, a messenger came up to where Duke haMinch was seated on the dais, a few yards from where Amai, Elspeth and Faren sat.

"The Yamani priestess has come to the palace, your grace."

"Why come to me?" Duke haMinch asked, breaking off his talk with the two southern nobles seated with him. Elspeth absently listened to them as she ate her toast. She picked up some interesting things, sitting close to the noble's dais in the page's mess hall "That is business for the ambassadors…" the duke was saying.

"She wishes to be escorted by one of the pages," the messenger said, obviously agitated about the preistess asking something of him. "One of the, er, female pages."

Duke haMinch frowned slightly. "Very well. Senia of Hannalof is too young," he said, naming the a first year female page, and the only other female page besides Amai and Elspeth. Elspeth turned innocently back to her toast as the duke looked over to where she and Amai sat. "Tameran, if you would come here," he said shortly, knowing full well she could hear him perfectly.

"Yes, your grace," she murmured, and put her tray away. She walked up to the dais.

"The priestess is in the southern entrance hall," the messenger said. "She must be taken to court." He slipped away. Elspeth walked out of the mess hall and jogged down the corridors to the southern wing, hoping she looked presentable enough for a delegate from the Yamani Isles and wishing she had taken time to brush her dark curls before breakfast.

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End of that chapter…and now that I've introduced everyone I can have something actually happen! Yay!

And please review!


	2. Chapter 2: The Star

Elspeth slowed to a walk outside the entrance hall, then opened the door and went in. A woman stood inside the hall, making the shining mosaics on the walls seem dim with the force of her presence. She was not Yamani; her features spoke of the eastern lands, her skin a little too dark for Tortall. Her hair was black and white intertwined in the pattern of an oddly intricate hairstyle. She wore a long, white kimono embroidered in gold. It seemed to glow, luminous against the darker cast of her skin and hair. Her face was, oddly enough, the face of a warrior, commanding and hard, its former beauty worn away by age and hardship; indeed, she was very old. It showed not so much in her skin or the white in her hair but in her eyes there was the certainty of age.

Feeling awed and a little afraid for some reason, Elspeth bowed, Yamani style, something the etiquette master had taught the pages first year. "The court, my lady, is this way," Elspeth said, gesturing, feeling a little uncertain under the priestess's calm eyes.

"Yes, you will do fine," the woman whispered, in Common, although she had a strong Yamani accent. "I sense it in you, Ailatairu's light."

Elspeth stopped dead. "Pardon? My lady?"

"Seek her out," the woman said, her voice stronger. "A page of Tortall, bearing the light that will wash away dark magic, when it seeks to alter the balance of this world. And I have found you, Elspeth of Tameran, I have found you at last."

Elspeth was left completely speechless by this. How did the priestess know her name? And she did have the Gift, but it was a minor power, hardly enough to label her a mage. The spell-light she cast would be more likely to illuminate the pages of a book thandefeat dark magic.

Suddenly the woman reached forward and seized Elspeth's arm, bending it forward to bring her hand out, palm up. Her fingers were like iron; Elspeth had to bite her lip to keep from gasping in pain.

"My lady priestess…!"

"Hush, girl." With the hand not in a vise around Elspeth's elbow, the priestess reached forward and touched Elspeth's outstretched hand. hen she drew her fingers away there was a small, slightly luminous white mark that looked like a many-pointed star on the girl page's callused palm.

Curious, Elspeth looked back up at the woman, hoping for an explanation or at least a hint, but the priestess's face had gone still with pain, her eyes going blank. Exhaustion crossed her face, then she collapsed, falling to the tiled floor, her kimono like a pool of light.

"My lady!" Frightened, Elspeth knelt beside the woman and felt for her pulse; there was none. Truly panicking now, she ran outside the hall and into the corridor. A servant disappeared into a noble's room, and at the other end of the hall a man in the robes of a mage was muttering over a book. Elspeth knew him; he was Andam Seirdash, the man who was taught the pages magic.

"Master Andam!" she shouted, running down the hall.

He looked up, frowning. "Tameran? What are you doing here, and why are you shouting?"

"Oh, gods, Master Andam," she said, skidding to a halt. "I was called to escort a Yamani priestess to court, but she— she collapsed, I can't feel her pulse—"

Frowning even further, Andam followed her at a run back down the hall. They came to the entrance hall and Andam knelt by the priestess, then sighed. "She's dead. Mithros knows what is going to have to be said to the Yamanis. She looks old, might have had a heart illness." He stood. "Did she seem ill before she collapsed?"

"No, she looked quite…strong." Elspeth tried not to shiver as she thought of the now-dead woman. Death was not something she took very well. She brushed her hair back from her face, but as she did Andam reached out and caught her hand.

"And where did you get that?" he said, his voice soft with curiosity. He was staring at the small, white mark of the star on Elspeth's palm. Elspeth looked at it too— she had nearly forgotten about it in her panic.

"She—" For some reason she didn't want to tell him what had happened. "I—I don't know."

Andam, frowning, touched the star. Suddenly pain like a white-hot dagger shot through her head, agony worse than anything she had ever felt before. She screamed, spots before her eyes, her knees buckling, only-half aware of Andam letting go of her arm before she fell into blackness.

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A little shorter than the last chapter, but at least something happened...


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